Adventures in finding balance.

Category Archives: Healthy

Sometimes Asian food really lends itself to vegetarian, and then vegan, dishes. I didn’t quite know what to make for dinner tonight and I had 1,000,000 green beans, so I came up with this Thai-inspired dish. It was really quick and easy for a Monday night. Not necessarily the most fat-free dish with the peanut butter and coconut oil, but INCREDIBLY delicious. Ben helped and he enjoyed it.

Vegan Thai Noodles

(20 minutes, serves 3-4)

8 oz. firm tofu, cut into cubes of about a ½ inch

2 Tb coconut oil, divided

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ginger powder, divided

half onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1/2 lb green beans, cut in half and blanched

½ cup chopped carrots

½ cup fresh corn

½ lb rice noodles, softened according to package directions (mine said to

leave it in warm water for 5-8 minutes)

Sauce

2 Tb peanut butter

¼ soy sauce

1 Tb Sriracha (or less, depending on your spice liking)

juice of two limes

2 cloves garlic, diced

½ tsp dried ginger

In a large wok, heat 1 Tb of coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and season with the garlic powder and ginger. Stir-fry until golden brown, then set aside.

When the tofu is out, add in the other Tb of coconut oil, the onions and garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds, then add the vegetables. Stir-fry until they become tender.

While the veggies are cooking, mix all of the ingredients of the sauce together in a small bowl. Whisk them together until they become a thick-ish sauce. If it’s too thick to your liking, add in a little water from the rice noodles to thin it out.

Once the vegetables are tender and the noodles are soft, add the noodles to the pan along with the tofu. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds before adding in the sauce. Add the sauce gradually and continue to stir-fry until everything is covered. You can add a little water from the noodles to ensure that the sauce is coating everything.

After about 3 minutes of stir-frying the noodles, tofu, veggies and sauce, remove from heat and serve. You can serve with some crushed peanuts, cilantro, and/or limes. All would be delicious!

Before I left Maryland, I had every intention to keep to my marathon training. I was going to run all the miles! Yeah. That didn’t happen. The best laid plans…As a “blah blah blah” excuse, I started having heel issues after I ran a 13 miler and decided to do some resting. However, as lovers of endorphins, Husband and I made a pact to run at least once in every city. We succeeded in that regard.

Running 1: Sorrento

Sorrento is absolutely beautiful. It is right on the Bay of Naples and built into a cliff. Gorgeous, but not very runner-friendly. When we told the hotel employees that we were looking for a good place to run, he looked at us like we were crazy, but pulled out a map and showed us a route. Basically, he was like, “Ok, here’s what you could do.” Side note, when we were outside getting read to run, an American man confused me for a small Italian child and asked me if some random cat were my cat. I got that a lot. Not the owning a cat part, but the thinking I was a young Italian girl. There are worse things.

At this point, you might be expecting me to say how awesome our run in Sorrento was. That it was filled with gorgeous sights and awesomeness. Nope. It was terrible. My legs felt awful and I was pretty much ready to retire from running. We ran a little over 2.5 miles due to the running course (not ideal) and my legs. Generally, I think that running anything less than 3 miles is a waste of my time, so this was a huge defeat for me. It was actually an auspicious decision, because when we got to Rome, Husband and I walked all the way from the train station to the Vatican and back. That was about a 6-7 mile walk. We ended up getting our work-out in!

This is a view of the city walls in Sorrento. Not taken on our run, but on an epic walk to our restaurant on the marina.

Running 2: Rome

Hands-down, this was one of the coolest runs that I have ever done. Husband and I got up early to go for our run. Many in Maryland talked about how hot it was in the DMV while we were gone. It was pretty darn hot in Rome as well. On our run, we ran around the Forum, on the Circus Maximus, and past the Colosseum. So. Awesome. This run finally felt good and I was able to power up one of Rome’s famous hills. These hills. They are not joke. It was a 4 mile jaunt and Husband I walked another 6 miles later in the day. We were walking machines.

Yep. This was part of our run. We took this later in the previous day, but how awesome is running past the old stuff?

Running 3: Florence

This was the best run of the three. We were feeling good and Florence is surprisingly runner and cyclist-friendly. Unlike Rome, where you are pretty certain you are going to die at any moment on the road, Florence has designated runner/cyclist lanes and many streets that are too narrow except for scooters to cruise down. This jaunt took us over the Arno, through the streets, past the Palazzo Vecchio, back over the bridge, past the Pitti Palace, then along the Arno and back to our hotel. It was an amazing run that really made me feel fantastic…and the hotel had delectable pains au chocolat to “refuel.’ Overall, an incredible day. 🙂

Running in Florence. This was taken after my run and I’m repping the high school XC team. Hooray, Florence! Hooray, Ponte Vecchio!

While I didn’t keep to my training schedule, I enjoyed my trip and most of the runs that we did. Sometimes you need to break from training and really enjoy your surroundings.

It sounds like the title of an Anne Tyler novel, but alas, it is not. Marathon training has really started and yesterday I was planning to run 12 miles. Ugh. I haven’t run that in the heat in a year. In any case, I have a series of loops around my house for which I generally know the mileage. Note that I said, “generally.” There is one loop that is 12 miles if you take it one way and 13 if you take it the other. Unfortunately, I forgot about the dual-loop nature of the run.

Everything started out just fine. Yesterday was a beautiful day. It wasn’t too hot or humid, the sun was rising, there was mist on the fields: a lovely, Maryland morning. I was trucking along at about 15-30 seconds slower than goal race-pace. Little Gamin was doing her job. I even went up my giant hill with no problem. There were only two near-death experiences on the roads with no shoulder, so I counted that as a win. When I turned through historic Downtown Sandy Spring (it’s super adorable and reminds me of Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls), I noticed that there might be a problem. Garmin had clicked over to 9 miles and I thought, “There is no way that it’s only 3 miles to home.” Truth. When I reached the stable where I used to ride (former equestrienne here) and Garmin clicked 11 miles, I was very sad because I knew that I still had 2.5 miles to go.

What’s a girl to do? My fitness isn’t quite up to 13.5 miles at that pace, so I had a choice to make. Should I push it or should I stop at 12 and have a 1.5 mile cool down? One of my colleagues recently wore a shirt that said, “If I stopped running, how would I get home?” I took that to heart in my decision-making and made a compromise. I ran 13.1 miles and then walked the remaining .4 mile home. During the last .1, I thought that this was a bad decision, but it turned out to be a good choice. When I said that the morning wasn’t too humid, I meant for Maryland. In reality, I was so sweaty that my running shorts had morphed into compression shorts. You’re welcome for that mental image. The extra cool down allowed me to not be as sore and calm the sweat factory, which was excellent. In all, it was a happy ending to a potentially sad story!

In an attempt to get my child to eat anything at all, I’ve been cooking as much Indian food as I can, which is slightly challenging. One thing I’ve learned about cooking is that watching someone cook is really important. Having only served as a sous chef to my bestie as we made channa masala during high school, I make a lot of things up as I go. I’m working on it, though!

Dinner tonight was an accidentally vegan meal. Accidentally, because I don’t intend on ever becoming vegan and the recipes just happened to not have animal products. Trust me. I love dairy far too much. This meal was spawned from a desire to get rid of a lot of the produce that I had in my fridge. My dad found the eggplant recipe after two HUGE eggplants arrived in my Washington’s Green Grocer box. Getting rid of produce will be a theme this week.

Baingan Bharta and stuffed Kale Parathas. Yum.

For the main dish, I made Baingan Bharta, which is an eggplant and tomato curry. Think of it kind of like an Indian ratatouille. Fun fact: Indian food is not quick to make. I used Mark Bittman’s recipe and was really pleased. It was probably one of the better curries that I’ve made so far. I followed it to a T and it came out really well. I recommend using only one jalapeño with the seeds mostly removed. We like heat and this was a pleasant amount.

To go with the Baingan Bharta, I made stuffed Kale Parathas. Husband LOVED them. I used this recipe and altered the filling slightly by using fresh ginger instead of ginger paste and I didn’t use the chilies or the sugar. Instead, I used a dash of cayenne. They were superb, if I do say so myself. Highly recommended!

Stuffed peppers are one of Husband’s favorites. It’s an American staple that can very easily be turned into something that’s vegetarian friendly, and healthy! I made these pretty protein-packed and substituted in quinoa for the traditional rice. Additionally, you can make this recipe very easily for the non-vegetarian set. One of the rules for when I gave up land animals was that Husband and Ben didn’t need to become vegetarians along with me. Therefore, I often have to make 1.5 meals for dinner. Generally, not a big deal. What makes this meal awesome is that it is very quick to make and can easily be a week-night meal (especially if you make the quinoa ahead of time). One of the keys to this recipe is that I brown the met first (for the non-vegetarian filling). By browning the meat first, you cut down on the wait time substantially.

In a 1 1/2 quart sauce pan, bring quinoa and stock to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and allow to cook until the quinoa becomes translucent (approximately 10-15 minutes). When the quinoa has about 5 minutes left to cook, add in the onion.

As the quinoa cooks, brown the ground turkey. After the turkey is browned, add in the taco seasoning and a 1/4 of water. Cook until the water is absorbed/evaporated.

When the quinoa is done cooking, divide it roughly evenly between two medium bowls. Add in the turkey to one bowl, and mix to combine. In the other bowl, add in the coarsely chopped black beans and spices and mix to combine.

In preparing the peppers to be stuffed, cut off the stem and remove the seeds and ribs. Cut a small bit off of the bottom so that the pepper will stand on a jellyroll pan.

Stuff the peppers to the brim. For my recipe, I had 4 non-vegetarian peppers and two vegetarian peppers. Top each of the peppers with shredded cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes and serve!

Vegetarian stuffed peppers. Look at all that protein-y goodness!

At first, Ben was unconvinced about the whole thing. However, I added some garam masala, and he ate it right up. He is a weird, weird kid.

This is an action shot of Ben eating garam masala straight. I have an odd child.

Recently, I have had several people ask me, when or how does running become enjoyable? When does this mystical “runner’s high” happen? How does one get to that point without giving up? My answer is always the same, you just have to go out there and run. I talk about endorphins a lot and how much I love running. However, running isn’t always enjoyable. Sometimes, the thought of another mile is so daunting that I want to give up. I will be running the Chicago Marathon in October and recently downloaded the training plan. Looking at the weekly mileages, I thought, “Why am I doing this? This is stupid.” The thought of 40 miles per week, then 50 miles per week is just hard to fathom. Then, I have to remember that I’ve done it before and that I’m not “required” to run those exact work-outs. I can modify to prevent injury as much as I want. They’re not the boss of me! But still, even as an experienced runner, I still have those, “Well how am I going to do that?” moments.

Last weekend, I ran the Baltimore 10-Miler. Initially, I hadn’t had high expectations for the race. It was run by the same people who ran the Baltimore Marathon, which I hated. I signed up for the race on a whim because they were offering a really nice jacket for all the finishers and the entry fee was relatively cheap (especially considering the prize). I’m not proud that I signed up for a race because of the give-away, but I did it. I’m glad that I did! The race was really fun. The crowd wasn’t too large (around 4,500) and the location was in lovely Druid Hill and Lake Montebello in Northern Baltimore. Getting to the race was another story. Husband, the police officer, definitely locked the car doors as we drove through some really seedy neighborhoods. Once we got to the start line, it was a delight. There was a band, plenty of port-o-potties (after the toilet debacle of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half, this was excellent), Dunkin’ Donuts was giving out free samples, and many more. Ben thought this was the greatest thing that ever happened to him: a park with dogs and music? What could be better!

One of my, “Well, how am I going to do that?” moments happened in the middle of the race. Mostly, the race went well. But, like an idiot, I took it out too fast running 7:45 splits for the first 4 miles. At the turn-around (it was an out-and-back), I started to die and realized how much training I have to do before Chicago. At mile 9, the poop really hit the fan. The delightful downhill on the way out was a brutal uphill that made me want to cry. Several people walked it, but like the XC coach that I am, I made myself go up it. Thankfully, I had enough left in my tank that I was able to finish strong with a final kick, but my second half splits were abysmal. Ah well. The spectators along the way were fun. There were some excellent B’more ladies (not hons, sadly), who kept yelling, “Get on with your bad selves.” Awesome. Pure Baltimore. The officers along the way were also pretty fun and would yell at us up the hills. It was a really collegial race. I think that’s one good thing when you go into a race with little expectations about the race and your own performance: you have fun.

Post race was excellent. June in Baltimore is brutally hot and humid, so at the finish they had ice cold wet towels and my new favorite post-run food: watermelon. Watermelon is not my favorite fruit, but after a hot run, nothing can be better. It’s fruit and water all in one. Genius. After picking up my swag, we hung out listening to the band and chomping on Munchkins and fruit strips. So delicious. Ben loved every minute. He danced and had a grand old time. Husband enjoyed it, too. He’s become quite the race-spectator expert and gave the 10-miler a “thumb’s up”. It was a great race and I HIGHLY recommend it.

The last month of being land-animal free has been an adventure. A good adventure, but an adventure none-the-less. One thing I’m really happy about is that I’ve become much more creative with my cooking, especially when trying to find protein substitutes. While I really could eat my sweet potato patties every day, that’s a whole lot of sweet potato (speaking of which, eating the sweet potato patties with the beet and paneer paratha is AMAZING). My former riding instructor is a vegetarian/vegan chef and shared a recipe for black bean burgers.

In a medium bowl, mash the black beans, cilantro, onion and garlic with a potato masher.

Add in the seasoning and stir everything together.

Form the mixture into patties that are about a 1/2″ thick.

In a skillet over medium heat, heat some olive oil, and cook about 3 minutes per side.

I served mine up in a fresh, whole wheat pita, which I made using this recipe. Making your own pitas is ridiculously easy, so I’m sad that it’s taken me this long to make them. I served the burger with Greek yogurt on a pita.

In addition to the black bean burgers, I made a quinoa and beet salad. Quinoa is another really great source of protein. For those of you who are gluten-free, quinoa is a great option.